Bleed Just To Know You're Alive
by SereneCalamity
Summary: Jesse's dead. Vince is in critical condition. Mia is back in LA and Letty has disappeared. Leon doesn't know what to do with a broken Dom. Dotty. OneShot.


_So the title of the song is a line from a song called _Iris _by Goo Goo Dolls. Amazing song, I absolutely love it. If you haven't heard it, I definitely suggest listening to it! If you guys have any requests/prompts for a oneshot, just PM me :)_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the title or the characters._

It had been nearly five weeks since Jesse Lomas had died. Five weeks since Vince Martin had _nearly _died. And now here he was, sitting in the middle of some run down little place in Mexico, onto his fifth beer in half an hour, his eyes staring down at the bar blankly. He had been in this town for a few days now, and his most frequent spot had been at the bar. On the first two days, several girls had come up to him, pressing their breasts against him and asking if he wanted to take them home. He had grunted, uninterested, ignoring their advances. Finally, the girls seemed to have realized he wasn't going to respond to their advances and they stopped. They still gave him looks when he came in the door, but he just stared straight ahead.

Dominic Toretto had never been one to mourn. It wasn't that Jesse hadn't been important to him—because that kid had held a special place in his heart. He had always been so eager to please, jumping at every opportunity to prove himself. Hanging around every corner, his arms crossed over his scrawny chest and a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. But he knew from experience that mourning over someone wouldn't bring them back. He tried to carry on living his life and make the most of things he enjoyed, trying to make his dead loved ones proud.

But the one he was sitting her moping after, wasn't dead.

She just didn't want to see him.

After Brian Spilner—or _O'Conner_—as he had just found out, had let him take off in his car, Dom had arranged to meet up with Leticia Ortiz and Leon Epppes. His sister was their go between, the only one they had managed to keep out of trouble. Mia Toretto had said that she told the other two what happened to Jesse and both of them had sounded pretty broken up. All Dom had wanted to do was get to his friends—get to Letty. He just wanted to disappear into her, forget about all the fuck ups that had happened. But she hadn't shown up at the meeting point, only Leon was there. He had shuffled his feet when Dom had demanded to know where Letty was, but all Leon had to say was that after Mia had told them Jesse was dead, she took off. He thought she was only going off for a drive, just needed to blow off steam. But she had never come back. He had rung Mia, his voice growling down the line, and she had said Letty had called her a few hours earlier, saying that she was fine, but she needed to be alone. That she didn't want to see anyone.

That was three weeks ago now.

"Another one, _papi_?" The girl behind the bar asked, grinning at him as she took away the empty bottle from in front of him. Dom just gave a short nod, not saying anything. She put another cold beer in front of him an cracked the top off.

"Bro, don't you think it's time to ease up?" Leon's voice came from behind him as he slumped into the stool next to him. Dom spared him a single glance before going back to his beer. Leon let out a harsh sigh. "It's one in the afternoon and you are half drunk. This is stupid, Dom," his voice was rising as he got more annoyed. Dom still didn't reply. Leon shook his head and got off the stool. "Look, I'm going out to the races in the desert. Are you coming?" Nothing. Leon pursed his lips together and spun on his heel, leaving the bar.

Two months ago, he would have jumped at the chance to race in the desert of Mexico. The stakes would be high, the girls would be barely clothed and there was very little chance of cops.

Now, he didn't even drive his car.

His 1969 Daytona Charger was sitting around the back of the shack he had been staying in.

Hadn't been touched in nearly two weeks.

* * *

Going near a girl who already had a guy wasn't exactly Dom's style. Although, to be fair, going near any girl except Letty for over two years now hadn't been his style. But he was drunk past the point of thinking rationally. So when a blonde with big lips and tits started making eyes at him and looking pointedly toward the bathroom, he just went with it. He pushed himself away from the bar and made his way to the tiny bathroom stall, and a moment later, the blonde joins him. She's pressing herself against him and grinding against his lap and he goes with it. He's not really sure if he's enjoying it or not, because to be honest, he couldn't feel anything at all.

That is, until the Mexican guy who was with the girl threw open the door and hauled the pair out.

When the punches started coming, Dom managed to deflect a few. The alcohol in his system slowed down his reaction time, though, and soon he was knocked off his feet and his vision was blurry. When the bathroom door slammed shut and he was left alone in the stall, he lifted a hand to his nose, feeling the blood that was pouring over his upper lip.

* * *

It kept happening. Leon noticed the bruises, he saw the gashes and ripped clothes. Every night that Dom came home, he looked bad and smelt even worse. Leon wasn't a big guy, and he couldn't move Dom into the shower to get rid of the smell of alcohol and sweat, so he settled for dumping a bucket of icy water over his head in the morning.

"What the fuck?" Dom growled, blinking up at Leon.

"Bro, get it together," Leon growled back. "What the hell is going on with you?"

"You're dropping buckets of water on my head—that's what the hell is going on with me!" Dom shouted, scrambling to his feet and shaking himself, droplets of water spraying in every direction.

"That's because you're lying in a heap on the ground, feeling fucking sorry for yourself! I'm tired of this shit!" Leon snapped. "You're not the only one hurting." Dom grunted something under his breath and Leon rolled his eyes. "_What _did you say?!"

"I said, I'm _not _just hurting!" Dom roared, spinning around to face Leon, his eyes flashing. Leon took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't feel anything—I feel _nothing_, Leon, except pain!" He took a step backwards, and wobbled slightly, the alcohol still rushing through his system from the hours earlier when he had come home. "We lost Jesse. We almost lost Vince. And Letty..." Leon heard the way Dom's voice hitched at the name of their favourite Latina. "And Letty won't even talk to me." Leon wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Letty's always there when things turn to shit. And this is as shit as they get. And she's not here." It was the first time he had said the words out loud and as he spoke them, he that the pain those words caused him, was worse than the pain he went through last night when being kicked in the ribs. By the time Leon could respond, Dom was already backing away, stumbling toward the back of the house where the bathroom was.

"Dom—Dom, brother!" Leon shouted. There was a slam of a door and Leon sighed, bringing his fist down hard on the doorframe. He heard the shower start, and he knew that he should be glad that Dom was showering for the first time in what seemed like a week, but all he could think about were the words that he had said. He knew Dom was hurting—they were all hurting. But while they had all lost one of their friends, they hadn't lost their other half along with it, like Dom had.

He didn't have the words to make Dom feel better.

There was only one person in the world who could do that.

* * *

"I can't keep watching this, Mi," Leon's voice was low. "You need to find Let and get her to meet us."

"Can't you just lock him in a room somewhere, stop him from hurting himself?" Mia asked, only half joking.

"I wish," Leon pulled the cell phone away from his ear and checked how long the call had been going for. "I gotta bounce, Mia. But please, I don't want things getting worse."

* * *

Leon wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel when Dom slid behind the wheel of his Charger for the first time in over a month. He had been ready to go to the races alone, as he had been doing for the whole time they had been there, when Dom had muttered something about coming with him. Leon didn't think much of it, thought it was all talk. From the way Dom had been limping around the house, one eye so bruised it was almost swollen shut, he wasn't sure it was even possible for him to drive safely. But maybe that was the point. He watched Dom carefully in his rear view mirror as they made their way deeper into the desert. Dom was driving normally until the lights of the races appeared on the horizon. Then the charger sped up, and overtook Leon easily. Three months ago, the driving wouldn't have worried Leon. Dom was always out in front, he came to second to no one. But now, it just made him wonder how much longer they were going to keep this up before the bigger man got himself seriously injured. He pressed down harder on the accelerator, trying to keep up with Dom.

Dom couldn't believe how long he had been away from behind the wheel. It was where he belonged and since he was fourteen, not a day had gone past without him being in the drivers seat for some amount of time. The purr of the engine reverberated throughout the car and made his aching body hum.

This was the happiest he had felt since he had left LA.

And for some reason, that just didn't settle well.

Most of the races were just straight across the dust, a straight quarter mile. Other races, the ones where the real money came in, took place amongst the mountains. The races in the mountains were dangerous, there were twists and turns, hundreds of places for the dirtier drivers to gain ground by hitting the tail end of their opponents cars.

Leon shouldn't have been surprised when Dom slapped down a wad of notes for the last race. He had never doubted Dom before—definitely never doubted his driving ability. But from the way his eyes were glazed, probably from alcohol, and how he could barely stand on his left leg, Leon was worried. Obviously the pain in his leg was okay enough for him to drive here, but him and Leon hadn't been racing, he hadn't needed to shift gears in a hurry. Out in the mountains, he would need to change gears quickly and Leon was praying that Dom's leg was going to hold up. As soon as Dom took off into the night, Leon felt sick.

"Just letting my man go off to kill himself?" Came a husky voice behind him. Leon spun around and couldn't help a smile from crossing his face. Letty stood there, wearing a leather mini skirt, a white tank top and an annoyed expression.

"No way I could have stopped him," Leon replied as he took a few steps closer to the Latina.

"Looks like someone might have," her voice was a low growl and Leon spun around. People were suddenly running forward, some people jumping in their cars and taking off in the direction that the racers had headed off in. Letty jumped in Leon's car and they sped off, easily over taking most of the cars who were just there to watch and really knew nothing about driving. Letty felt her stomach clench as she saw a red Charger flipped over against a huge rock, the bottom end smashed in. Leon's car skidded to a halt and Letty flew out the door, dropping to her knees by the drivers side window.

Dom's eyes were shut, blood trickling from his nose.

"You fucker," Letty hissed out. "You die on me now, I swear to God, I will bring you back and make your life hell." It took a moment, but she saw the corner of his mouth curve upward.

"Already do, Let," he growled. "Already do."

_So I do love this song, and this line, and I don't think I did it justice but I hope you guys enjoyed it._

_Leave a review :)_


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